This simple pie is made to be shared. It makes the best use of seasonal Indian berries like mulberry or shehtoot. You can even replace the mulberries with jamun when in season. The pucker-inducing sweetness of the mulberries takes centre stage and stands out as the star in this dessert. Serve with ice cream or a dollop of fresh cream.

  • Serves

    6

  • Cook Time

    00 h 45 m

    Plus baking and chilling

Ingredients

  • 2 cups mulberries
  • 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (maida)
  • ¼ cup icing sugar
  • 75 gm butter, chilled and cubed
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp corn flour, mixed with water
  • 1 tsp butter, softened
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Pinch of salt
  • Iced water, enough to bind dough

Preparation

  1. In a bowl, rub together the flour, chilled butter cubes (breaking them with fingers), salt and icing sugar, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  2. Add just enough chilled water, little by little, to form a dry dough.
  3. Knead for around 5 minutes and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.
  4. In a pan, melt the butter and add the mulberries. Cook the mulberries for 5 minutes before adding the sugar and lemon juice. The mulberries will let out some of their natural water.
  5. Toss in the corn flour. Let the mulberries bubble for a bit, until the sauce thickens. Leave the sauce to cool.
  6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it in 3:1 ratio.
  7. Roll out the bigger ball of dough and use it to line an 8-inch pie dish. Keep a little extra dough sheet hanging, and crimp the edges along the rim of the dish.
  8. Chill for 30 minutes. This will prevent the dough from shrinking in the pie dish.
  9. Blind bake the pie crust (fill it with beans) for 20 minutes at 160 degree Celsius. Remove beans, brush the pie crust with an egg wash and bake for 10 more minutes. This will prevent the base from getting soggy when you put in the mulberry filling.
  10. In the meantime, roll out the other ball of dough and cut it into long strips.
  11. Remove the pie from the oven, pour in the mulberry mixture and lay out the strips on top, first horizontally and then vertically along the surface of the pie, in a crisscross pattern.
  12. With a butter knife slice off the dough hanging off the edges. Crimp them along the edges so that they don’t hang loose.
  13. Brush with the egg wash and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Written by

Kainaz Contractor

Kainaz Contractor is the Chef-Partner at Divided Attention Hospitality, a Delhi-based company specialising in creating bespoke F&B projects that champion the cause of regional cuisine, local produce and seasonality. She co-founded Rustom’s Parsi Bhonu, the award-winning regional Parsi restaurant in New Delhi, with partner Rahul Dua of Café Lota fame. A talented food writer and former Assistant Food Editor at the BBC Good Food Magazine, her first menu for the magazine was aimed at educating readers about the classic Parsi specialities, which are relatively rare to find on restaurant menus. This is the kind of food that she now serves at Rustom’s.

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